The use of electronic devices that can communicate wirelessly is quickly becoming ubiquitous in society. For example, it is a common practice in daily life to use mobile phones, portable computing devices, wireless headsets and ear pieces, wireless connections of electronic devices with automobiles, the internet, and other types of computing devices having wireless communication abilities. A wide variety of wireless standards for wireless communications have been developed including Bluetooth®, Zigbee®, Wibree®, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards 802.11, 802.15 and 802.16, and so forth.
Wireless communication has become even more important in military use, where the need for wireless communication solutions in military applications is increasing as today's war fighter is becoming more and more complex in an effort to make the war fighter safer and more effective.
Sending information using wireless communications means, such as those listed above, can provide significant security risks. As the data is transmitted into free space, it becomes available for any party to receive. Reducing the risk of sending the data to an unwanted party can be accomplished using a number of techniques. One technique to reduce the risk of sending the data to unwanted groups or individuals is to encrypt the data. Wireless data encryption standards include the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) standard, the Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) standard, and various standards used by the government and military including the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128, AES 256, Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4, Suite A and Suite B classifications, to name a few. Another technique used to protect transmitted data is through the use of an electronic handshake between two wireless devices. The handshake is also commonly referred to as pairing.
Pairing and encryption are typically accomplished by the transfer of encryption keys. As the encryption keys and other necessary information are communicated between the wireless devices, this information may be intercepted by an undesired party. Once the undesired party has access to the pairing and/or encryption information, they may continue to intercept wireless communications from users that the user believes is being communicated over a secure wireless link.
While data transmitted with wireless devices can be protected through the use of encryption and pairing, the devices can be at their most vulnerable when the encryption process and/or pairing is conducted since the keys for deciphering encryption are often communicated at this time. Knowledge of this information can also be used to reverse engineer or decrypt other secure systems that use the same encryption algorithms. This can lead to the need to develop and implement new encryption algorithms, which can be an incredibly costly and time consuming process.
One method to enable secure communication between wireless devices is to require that encryption and pairing protocols are communicated over a secure link, such as a wired or fiber optic link between the two devices. However, this can be impractical based on the design of the wireless devices, and the amount of time it takes to physically connect the devices to the wired or fiber optic link. For persons having multiple devices, the time it takes to physically connect the devices and exchange encryption information can significantly reduce the benefits of using wireless devices.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.